Russian artillery units open fire on Ukrainian forces, NATO alleges

U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration on Friday condemned the movement of a Russian convoy into eastern Ukraine, calling it a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and demanding that it be withdrawn.

“We are deeply concerned about this,” said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama.

Rhodes said the U.S. would discuss the matter Friday with its partners on the U.N. Security Council.

“Russia must remove its vehicles and its personnel from the territory of Ukraine immediately,” the Pentagon’s press secretary, Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters earlier. “Failure to do so will result in additional costs and isolation.”

Hours after the Russian convoy entered without permission Friday, NATO announced that Russian artillery units were firing on Ukrainian forces inside Ukraine .

Russian artillery support has been “employed against Ukrainian armed forces,” NATO said in a statement.

“Moreover, NATO is observing an alarming build-up of Russian ground and air forces in the vicinity of Ukraine,” the statement reads.

Since mid-August, NATO observers have noted “major escalation in Russian military involvement” in the region, including the use of Russian troops.

Ukraine has long accused Russia of supporting and arming the rebels, a charge that Russia denies.

NATO’s secretary general condemned Russia for sending a “so-called humanitarian convoy” into eastern Ukraine without the consent of the Ukrainian government.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen called Russia’s unilateral decision to send more than 130 trucks filled with what it called humanitarian aid into rebel-held areas “ a blatant breach of Russia’s international commitments” and “a further violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty by Russia.”

At the United Nations in New York, Russia’s ambassador to the U.N., Vitaly Churkin, hotly denied that any Russian troops were inside Ukraine.

Russia sent the aid trucks rolling into rebel-held eastern Ukraine on Friday after declaring it had lost patience with Ukraine’s stalling tactics.

Ukraine called the move a “direct invasion” that aimed to provoke an international incident.

After spending hours on winding country roads, the convoy began pulling into the hard-hit city of Luhansk, which appeared to be mostly in the hands of the rebels, on Friday evening.

In the past few days, Ukraine said its troops had recaptured significant parts of Luhansk and suspicions were running high that Moscow’s humanitarian operation may instead be aimed at halting Kyiv’s military momentum. Fierce fighting has been reported this week both around Luhansk and the largest rebel-held city, Donetsk, with dozens of casualties.

Speaking on national television, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk declared that Russia’s plan in sending half-empty trucks into Ukraine was not to deliver aid but to create a provocation by attacking the convoy itself, thus arranging a “provocation.”

Asked about that, Yatsenyuk replied that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began back in March when it annexed Crimea and has been going on ever since.

The white-tarped semis, which Russia says are carrying food, water, generators and sleeping bags, aimed to help citizens in Luhansk. The city has seen weeks of heavy shelling that has cut off power, water and phone lines and left food supplies scarce.

Four troops were killed and 23 wounded in the past 24 hours in eastern Ukraine, the government reported at noon Friday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which had planned to escort the Russian aid convoy to assuage fears that it was a cover for a Russian invasion, said it had not received enough security guarantees to do so Friday, as shelling had continued overnight in the area.

The swiftness with which Russia set the mission into motion last week and the lack of direct involvement from the international community immediately raised questions about Moscow’s intentions. AP journalists following the convoy across country roads heard the trucks’ contents rattling and sliding Friday, confirming that many vehicles were only partially loaded.

Nalyvaichenko, speaking to reporters in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, said the men driving the trucks into Ukraine were Russian military personnel “trained to drive combat vehicles, tanks and artillery.” The half-empty aid trucks would be used to transport weapons to rebels and spirit away the bodies of Russian fighters killed in eastern Ukraine, he said.

He insisted, however, that Ukraine would not shell the convoy.

Ukraine’s presidential administration said Kyiv authorized the entrance of only 35 trucks. But the number of Russian vehicles entering the country through a rebel-held border point Friday was clearly way beyond that amount.

An Associated Press reporter saw a priest blessing the first truck in the convoy at the rebel-held checkpoint and then climbing into the passenger seat. A lone border guard unlocked a customs gate, and on the trucks went.

Russian customs service representative Rayan Farukshin said all vehicles in the convoy, which counts more than 260 trucks, had been checked and approved for onward travel. Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said as of midday, 134 Russian aid trucks, 12 support vehicles and one ambulance had crossed into Ukraine.

“The Russian side has decided to act,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “It is no longer possible to tolerate this lawlessness, outright lies and inability to reach agreements … we are warning against any attempts to thwart this purely humanitarian mission.”

Although Luhansk is only 20 kilometres from the border, the Russian convoy took a meandering route, apparently in an effort to avoid areas controlled by Ukrainian troops.

There is increasingly a sense that the Ukrainian leaders are deliberately dragging out the delivery of the humanitarian load

Shortly after leaving the rebel-held border town of Izvaryne, the convoy turned off of the main highway to Luhansk and headed north on a country road. Rolling on small roads greatly slowed the trucks’ progress, turning what would in peacetime take roughly two hours into a daylong haul.

Rebel forces took advantage of Ukraine’s promise not to shell the convoy to drive on the same country road as the aid trucks. Around lunchtime, around 20 green military supply vehicles — flatbed trucks and fuel tankers – were seen traveling in the opposite direction. Other smaller rebel vehicles could be seen driving around.

The convoy moved along village roads hugging the Russian border, which is marked by the winding Seversky Donets River. In the village of Davydo-Mykilske, less than one kilometre west of the border, AP reporters saw three rebel tanks, dozens of militiamen and several armoured personnel carriers.

The trucks from Moscow had been stranded in a customs zone for more than a week since reaching the border. The Russian Foreign Ministry voiced increasing frustration at what it said were Kyiv’s efforts to stall its delivery, while Ukraine demanded that the trucks enter through a government-controlled border post so it could check their contents.

The Russian Foreign Ministry had accused the government in Kyiv of shelling areas the convoy would have to pass through, making its travel impossible.

“There is increasingly a sense that the Ukrainian leaders are deliberately dragging out the delivery of the humanitarian load until there is a situation in which there will no longer be anyone left to help,” it said Friday in a statement.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry retorted with a statement accusing Russia of “ignoring international rules, procedures and agreements that have been reached.”

Last week, after the Russian aid convoy left Moscow, Ukraine mounted its own humanitarian operation for those affected by fighting in the east. The rebels have said, however, they will not allow that material to enter their territory.

The fighting in eastern Ukraine began in mid-April, a month after Russia annexed Ukraine’s southern Black Sea peninsula. It has killed over 2,000 people and forced 340,000 to flee, according to the United Nations.